St. Martin · MF

Tintamarre

Tintamarre is the kind of place that makes you question whether you have arrived at the right coordinates. A quarter-mile-long speck of land floating about three kilometres off the northeast coast of Saint Martin, this uninhabited islet belongs to the French side's marine nature reserve and wears its wildness like a badge. The name itself tells the story — it comes from the Spanish tinta mare, colour of the sea — and once you see that impossible band of turquoise lapping against fine white sand, you understand the origin. The twist that elevates Tintamarre above a mere pretty beach is what lurks behind the shoreline. From 1944 to 1952 an actual airstrip ran across this scrubby plateau, serviced by bush pilots, smugglers, and a handful of islanders. The wrecks they left behind — corroded hulls and seized engines half-swallowed by the bush — are still there, surreal and photogenic, a reminder that Robinson Crusoe fantasies have real-world predecessors.